Most often I will avoid deep frying. Others seem to mention similar reasons--messy, waste of good oil, and so on.
The few times I deep fry are for dough nuts and meat balls. Although I usually cook the meatballs in the sauce, once in a while I just crave a deep fried, crusty, yummy meatball sans la sauce.

I am enjoying the forum, and have ordered the dough whisk from the referenced site(thanks for the link!)

Eggplant is one of my favorite foods! I love it prepared as Eggplant Parmesan. Another delicious dish is one I learned at home from Mom--Stuffed Eggplant(using same ingredients as in Stuffed Peppers).
Eggplant is wonderful broiled or roasted with olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper, grated cheese....eat with crusty bread or over pasta._________________Bucci

Emilyj
For an easy bain-marie, simply employ a double boiler.
Bring several inches of water to boil in a pot, then lower to a simmer.
Place an aluminum bowl, of similar size, on top. If the bath seems to be too hot, the heat can be turned off. The steam will continue to heat the contents of the bowl. This is perfect for melting chocolate and also to warm eggs before whipping to obtain maximum volume.
I hope you will try it._________________Bucci

Skinning and seeding tomatoes. I know it's not that hard to do, but I just won't. Also I have an old stove with the broiler on the bottom, so broiling is also a deal breaker. I have to kneel down on the floor to pull out the broiler and I see all the crud under the stove.

I'd have to disagree, Bucci. For things that can be stirred--like sauces, and melting chocolate---the misnamed double boiler works fine.

But a bain-marie is most often used for baking certain goodies, such as custards. It's purpose is to assure even heat distribution around the entire perimeter of the product. This prevents hot spots (and, thus, uneven heating), and, in cases like cheesecake, lets the top brown without cracking.

Sorry, Emilyj, didn't realize we were speaking of the traditional cooking method of bain-marie. Ooops! My limited experience is showing!
My suggestion might be an option for simple processes, such as those I mentioned._________________Bucci

I have a phobia of all baking recipes. I come from a long line of women who never touched a baking pan in their lives.

When I was 12, I tried making a bready dessert dish and the bread to rise wonderfully thanks to the turkey cooking in the oven below the stove, but after that, anything breadlike has been a fiasco._________________"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" --- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Am feeling eggplant/aubergine might require some friends....I love them! There's a noodle place in Sydney that does wonder with eggplant, potato, and red capsicum..plus the noodles they make as you watch them being twirled in the air...oops..to the topic!

I tip toe around anything with the word 'yeast' in it...simply years of fear methinks..today I had hot chocolate and a wonderful twisted poppyseed pastry (yeast) in a cafe that sells scrumptious food...told my friend "I'm going to make a batch of those soon." Might give myself a time limit...by the end of August..

'n how can you make churros if not by deep frying Must admit I used to be wary of deep frying..however it has its place in foodland..

other than yeast? offal...however that's really a head thing with me...

super topic Clotilde..thanks...I'm now inspired to the hilt!_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Joined: 29 Sep 2004Posts: 1196Location: buried under a pile of books somewhere in Adelaide, South Australia

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:38 am Post subject:

Well, well, well, Clotilde - this topic has certainly brought a lot of lurkers out to play! Welcome everyone.

The thought of cooking fish undoes me - choosing it, finding a good recipe and then not overcooking it. It's all too hard, so I just don't cook it at all. I love eating fish so it's kept as an 'eating out' treat.

And deep frying - all that oil, and the oily smell afterwards. Yuk._________________Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

...any recipe that starts with "Take a cup of Cool Whip" ... or marshmallow creme...or any other ingredient that's mostly chemicals and has a shelf life of 30 years. No "fake food".

Sorry...can't do snails, and while I happily consume rabbit, duck, lamb and other Easter-associated animals (I do have a friend who simply can't get past the bunny, duckie thing...), I'm queasy around the idea of buffalo, most game, and anything crawly.

And I don't like deep frying either...but yeast! Wonderful! I can only advise you non-believers to jump right in and give it a try. Watching your own bread rise is like watching your garden grow. Don't deny yourself the delight.

This topic makes me smile. Does anyone remember the scene in the movie "Notting Hill" with Hugh Grant's blind date, an extreme fruitarian/vegetarian foodie type who will eat only those fruits and veggies that have already dropped to the ground of their own accord? She couldn't eat the carrots because they'd been "murdered". Wonder if she'd approve of deep frying??

Fear of Frying: I have never deep-fried anything in my life, and even shallow-frying makes me jump back from the stove in alarm when the grease pops. Sauteeing with a very small amount of oil, or stir-frying in a wok is OK. I grew up in a family that rarely fries foods, even here in Texas. I couldn't make edible fried chicken or chicken-fried-steak if I tried. (I did try once, for both things. Scary, messy and badly done.)

Oh yes! About the fake ingredients. I have horrid memories of going to church potlucks in the 60's & early 70's. Guaranteed buffet dishes would be the "salad" of cool-whip, a box of *dry* jello, mini-marshmallows & canned fruit cocktail. Yuck! And instant mashed potatoes made with lots of "spread" (fake margarine), overprocessed Velveeta cheese, and garlic powder. It doesn't make instant mash taste any better, believe me.

In the past, I never was intimidated by lengthy processes or ingredient lists (except homemade ravioli). Not intimidated now, but I've reached a point of valuing simplicity with regard to both, without everything being totally plain and/or bland. Occasionally, I'll do something more complex but save those recipes for special occasions. But if a recipe is "over-done" (bad pun) so it's posh to the point of ridiculousness, that's a deal breaker to be sure. There are too many things I'd rather do than spend most of the day in the kitchen on a regular basis.

Joined: 29 Sep 2004Posts: 1196Location: buried under a pile of books somewhere in Adelaide, South Australia

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:25 am Post subject:

I completely agree with you about spending lengthy periods of time in the kitchen, brighidsdaughter ( lovely to 'see' you here again!). Although there are some times when I really enjoy cooking without having to think too much about it - it becomes almost meditative.

I do tend to turn the page if I find a recipe that has more than around 8 or 10 ingredients, and I'm with you on the packaged food bit, Georgia. I give those recipes a miss too._________________Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

gettin ready to fry some vidalia onion rings tonite.....y'all don't know what you're missing!!! I don't like to eat any "innards" so i don't look to prepare them.....although i do like a country pate once in a great while

and anything that has to do with jello......yuck

i also don't get the add something weird to chocolate fad....just give me plain dark chocolate without any cayenne, ginger or pieces of odd things inside_________________Make me half the person my dog thinks I am.

Homemade pasta - but I hope this won't be a deal-breaker forever. Up to now, it's been one only because I lack both the equipment and the workspace necessary for making it. I'm hoping that in the not-too-distant future I won't have to pass regretfully over all my recipes for ravioli and the like.

Bananas - one of the few foods I actively dislike. (Apparently I couldn't get enough of them as a baby and very small child - perhaps I overdid it then?) And yet... I'll happily eat (and make) banana bread and banana cake. I think it's the texture, rather than the taste, of the raw fruit that I find so off-putting, so I guess disguising it beyond recognition is key.

Georgia, I'm with you on the snails and the fake ingredients (and especially recipes that combine snails and fake ingredients ).

First, anything involving candy thermometers - I don't own one, and these things come out terribly if you guess.

Second, most recipes involving food processing - I don't own a full-size blender or food processor either, and I've been (metaphorically) burned a few times by trying to puree or otherwise process stuff using inadequate equipment. My little immersion blender is great, but I wanted to scream after trying to blend a few pounds of cranberries and oranges in it last Thanksgiving. It took about ten tries.

Finally, those luscious and decadent recipes with six egg yolks, a pound of butter, and 8 oz of heavy cream. I KNOW they're delicious. They make me drool. But they also make me cringe. I'd rather order chocolate mousse with whipped cream in a restaurant and pretend I don't know what went into it!

I agree with those who've commented about separate X number of eggs and reserve whites/yolks for another purpose. I think once in the last ten years I've actually ever found a use for the reserved bits.

Deal breakers for me: I do, or have done rather, some chocolate work...the note in the formula that the ideal room temperature is 63-65 degrees Farenheit. I laugh, loudly, at such a thing. I couldn't afford the chocolate with an electric bill of those proportions. I've also seen some that specify what the humidity should be...I live in the Southeastern US...our humidity isn't that low on the coldest day in January.

I've also recently walked away from a few that began "Begin with a whole, dressed pig..."

Otherwise I'll try any ingredient or technique...once. If for no other reason to bring comedic value to the evening as my wife listens to me rant about the directions or uncooperative foodstuffs.